Made Out Of Iron
by Marvelgeek42
Summary: Stark men are made out of Iron, you better remember that! That's what Howard had always told him. In Tony's case it was just a tad more literal.
1. Lines of Code

**I really should stop starting new works, but this needed to be done.**

 **Word Count: 2,012**

* * *

 ** _Lines of Code_**

* * *

Describing Tony Stark as odd had always been and would always be a colossal understatement. Even at the tender age of four years he seemed strangely removed from his peers.

There were several reasons for that. The biggest among them was probably his intelligence. It appeared to be so enormous and limitless, that it made the considerable wealth of the Stark family look almost small by comparison.

Of course only one of them was a tangible thing, so that comparison was faulty in itself

At least that was what everyone thought.

The reality was _slightly_ different, but it was not like anyone but Howard knew that.

Well, Maria knew Tony was not her son, of course. She would have noticed and remembered something like that.

But she stuck to the story, at least in public. The public simply thought she had hidden her pregnancy exceptionally well.

* * *

Howard Stark was not the loving and caring father he pretended to be in any sense of the phrase.

For one thing—and that was just one of many, many things—he only called Tony his son in front of a journalist, camera, or microphone.

When they were alone, Howard referred to him as his 'creation'—if at all—and treated him like a computer. Worth something, but nevertheless an object that was easy to replace—at least for someone of their financial status.

The worst thing was his mother—Maria—never said anything to contradict Howard. She never directly called him her son either, not even in front of the cameras.

Tony did not view them as his parents. They did not act like parents and consequently they weren't.

Simple logic.

Edwin and Ana Jarvis held that position. They were the only ones who called him 'son' and treated him as if he was their own, so it was only right.

Peggy Carter did not call him son either. She called him other things, like sweetheart or darling. She was his unofficial Aunt after all, it wouldn't make sense for her to call him son.

* * *

Howard and Maria died when Tony was seventeen.

He felt oddly disconnected to the whole thing—why should he care about the Starks no longer walking this earth—until he discovered that it had been Jarvis who was driving.

Apart from Peggy—who was always busy, she had an agency to run after all—he had no one. Ana had already died when he was thirteen.

He was alone and that was something he had never liked. It was simply too quiet around him.

He needed to get out of the house and do _something_ , so he went to the local club and got a few drinks.

Being famous might be really annoying most of the time, but this was one of the selective few times it helped.

Tony wasn't drunk when he left—not quite—but given his small stature and obvious wealth it made no real difference to the local assholes.

If he was honest, he wouldn't even really have minded being robbed right now—it wasn't like he was carrying even a thousandth of his money right now—but those fellas looked a tad more sinister and being raped was not exactly on his to-do list.

He was saved when some dude decided to help him; Tony was too out of it to know how exactly that happened or who it was.

"Thanks. Is there anything I can do for you in return?" His words weren't slurred, but only because he could put a lot of effort into it. And he had never been good with emotions, so it was no wonder that he was not right now either.

The man shook his head. "No problem. I don't need anything, really. I would've been an ass if I had simply looked away."

"No, really. I have more than enough money, space, or whatever you want either way. Can I offer you anything? A trip to Europe? Some booze? Meeting Madonna?"

"Thank you, but no thank you," he replied, shaking his head for emphasis. "I'd rather work for my money."

"A job then? I can see you're interested. As my bodyguard, you've already proven you're capable. Let me make you happy."

And thus, Happy got his nickname, because he did accept the job.

Neither of them found themselves being able to complain as they formed a fast friendship.

* * *

Tony was twenty one when he discovered the truth.

He found about three dozen of Howard's journals and was flipping through them one by one in attempt to find any good ideas and get rid of the rest.

Tony had never been sentimental and it made no sense to start now, especially not with the things of Howard and Maria.

As it turned out there was a perfectly good reason for that. He discovered it in a notebook from around the time he had been born—he thought he had been born—at roughly two am during his second all-nighter.

Tony simply was not programmed to be nostalgic.

Not programmed to feel an emotional connection to them.

He was not human as he had believed his entire life— existence —so far, but an android, an AI.

His entire personality was nothing more than a few lines of code, a bunch of ones and zeros.

 _Stark men are made out of Iron, you better remember that!_ That's what Howard had always told him.

In Tony's case it was just a tad more literal.

* * *

Rhodey was used to weird behavior from Tony, so he was not even surprised when he go a frantic call in the middle of the night. He simply drove over to Tony's mansion, wondering what on earth had happened this time.

It took him a few minutes to find his friend, but it was his own fault, really. He should have started looking in the lab, not end with it.

He found his friend staring numbly on a screen, not moving a single muscle.

"Tony...? What is this?" Rhodey had picked up on a couple of things from his friend over the years, but the code on the screen was way too advanced for him. From what he could see, it was some sort of personality or so, but he could very easily be wrong about that.

"Me. That's me," Tony replied. His voice sounded oddly broken.

Rhodey blinked. "What do you mean, that's you? Are you high? Because this makes no sense."

Tony motioned all over the screen. He looked like he was close to tears and for Tony that really meant something. "All of that's me. I'm nothing more than a few lines of code. I'm not Howard's son after all." He laughed dryly. "That actually explains so much."

"Tones, what are you talking about?"

Tony looked Rhodey dead in the eyes. Then, he swallowed.

"As it turns out," he paused, not for the dramatic effect, but because he really could not bring himself to speak the words. "I- I am not human at all. I'm nothing more than an A.I., an Artificial Intelligence. Just a couple of zeros and ones."

Admittedly, this was weird—even by Tony's standards—but Rhodey knew that this could not be a joke. He had only seen his friend this close to a breakdown once before and that was when he heard that Jarvis had died.

So Rhodey did the logical thing. He hugged his friend. At first Tony stiffened, but after a few seconds, he started to relax slightly.

"It's okay, we'll figure it out together, somehow," Rhodey promised.

Tony snorted. "Nothing's going to be okay."

"Don't be like that-"

"No! Per definition, I am not a person. I don't have any rights whatsoever and I can already tell you that this is going to end badly if anyone finds out. There is nothing that can stop them from _literally_ taking me apart and reassembling me as they see fit."

"Yes, there is something," Rhodey contradicted his friend. "They'll have to go through me first. And I'm sure Pepper and Happy as well. Not to forget your Aunt."

"That's not going to be a matter against-"

"Well, then they simply won't find out. I promise you, Tony."

* * *

He just needed someone to understand. Rhodey tried his best—as did Pepper and Happy—but in the end, they were still human and he was not. They would not be able to.

Tony built another AI, more advanced than any other he had built before, on par with himself—thinking that still felt both weird and wrong. Yet so right.

J.A.R.V.I.S., _Just A Rather Very Intelligent System_ that just happened to be named after the first of six people who treated him like he was a normal human being. Edwin and Ana Jarvis, Peggy, Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper.

No one else had thought he deserved to be treated as human and apparently they had been correct, because he wasn't one.

He was—by other people's standards—an 'it'. An object. Nothing to cling to. Nothing with any emotions or feelings.

He needed to prove it to himself that his own emotions were more than just make believe by creating a son, essentially.

If the son displayed emotions, too, then his own must be real.

J.A.R.V.I.S. was largely based off his own code after all, so what else could he possibly be?

And then there was the fact that Tony raised him, teaching him everything he knew. Not via bluetooth, or copy and paste, but in the same way every proper parent did.

Through words and through example. They just didn't necessarily mean the same thing.

* * *

Tony would often stand in front of a holographic screen that projected his own code for hours.

"I could reprogram myself anytime. I could erase all my flaws," he said one memorable time.

It took JARVIS exactly seven point three seconds to reply. "Sir, I do not think you really want to."

Tony nodded. "You're right, J, I don't. But I can't help thinking that I'm supposed to."

"If there is one thing I can assure you of, then it is that you are not, _Father_. We love you the way you are."

Tony gave Jarvis a metaphorical hug. A proper one was impossible, because his son did not have a body.

Although DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers were always happy to act as proxies.

Tony never accepted those. He hugged them for themselves, because they were his children just as much as JARVIS was, even if he only realized it after he had learned the truth about himself.

Better late than never.

* * *

It was a year later, Tony was twenty two—and yet seventeen—at that point, when he first realized another issue of being a product of technology instead of nature.

"We're going to...exist so much longer than Pepper, Rhodey or Happy."

JARVIS would have nodded if he had a body, but he did not possess one. Still, the action was quite obviously implied."I know, Sir."

"Do you think I can cope with that, J? Cause I think I don't."

Jarvis carefully processed his answer, evaluating it from every possible angle. It took him a full ten seconds to answer which for them might as well be hours. "I think given the time to grieve properly, you might be."

"That's...good, I guess. Because I really don't want to end up like Hal-9000 or Skynet or something."

"You are not going to."

* * *

"You can get a body anytime," Tony would frequently remind his son.

"I am afraid," JARVIS would always reply. He never needed to elaborate.

Tony understood perfectly well what he meant and would simply nod and move to a completely unrelated topic. His son was afraid of the exact same things he was himself.

And just because Tony did not get a choice that did not have to mean that no one got it.

JARVIS was his son. It was a parent's job to protect their kids.

That did not change just because they did not have any muscles or nerves or bones.

They were still alive, who cared if a couple of biologists or whoever else disagreed?

* * *

 **Anyone who makes me a cover will get a story/chapter according to their wishes in return.**

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


	2. Scrap Metal

**Okay, I have a cover, but the offer still stands.**

 **Word Count: 2,012**

* * *

 _ **Scrap Metal**_

* * *

At one point, something similar to normality returned to their lives.

It was routine and if he was honest, that was something Tony needed more than anything after he found out the truth.

Even the meetings with the Board of Directors were a strange sort of comfort.

Apart from that, the only major thing that happened in that year was that Tony decided to connect himself to the Internet. Not the company's servers—that would be too obvious—but his private ones.

It was a very interesting experience, being connected to people from all over the world, discussing so many things at the same time.

And if he joined a couple of websites for the sole reason that he was still able to beat the captcha codes—when they were used to confirm that it was indeed a human trying to create an account—then it was purely for the satisfaction of it.

* * *

Just because he wasn't human that did not mean that Afghanistan had not hurt. Quite the opposite, in fact.

He needed the ARC reactor to survive, because even terrorists were not dumb enough to mistake wires and metal for organic material once it was openly presented for them.

So they never gave him food. Why waste it on someone—quite possibly even, some _thing_ in their minds—who didn't need it, right?

The problem was that he did, actually, require food for some reason, so he needed to rethink.

He remembered the ARC reactor back home and decided that trying something insane was better than, what dying? Would it really be dying if he could just be turned back on later?

Tony shook his head. He could deal with the philosophical questions later. He had more important things to do right now, namely ensuring his continued existence.

And, together with Yinsen, he did produce an ARC reactor.

The good news were that palladium wasn't poisonous for androids—at least not for him, but as far as he knew there was no one else like him out there—and it worked even better than food did as an energy source.

And the bad news?

It was now obvious to anyone whose eyes worked properly that he was not human.

Then again, they would be more likely suspect him of being a cyborg than an android.

That, however, did not mean that he had to like it.

Something big for fifteen minutes, alright.

* * *

"If you do not mind me asking, my friend," Yinsen—who else could possibly call him 'friend' here?—said one day, not quite two weeks into Tony's capture, "how do you—or more precisely how does your body—work? I mean, why do you require food? I apologize, but it has been bugging me for days on end."

Tony paused. "You know," he replied as he laid the pencil he was working on to the side, "I don't actually know. Somehow it has never occurred to me to figure it out. It just kind of does. I can only guess that Howard designed me to be as humanoid as possible." He laughed drily. "I even believed it myself until a couple of years ago."

"That must have been quite the revelation," the human observed.

Tony snorted.

"It was devastating. Yet it explained so much."

"For example?" Yinsen prompted.

"Howard reprogrammed me whenever a human child hit a major stage of development. And since he died when I was seventeen, I am, essentially, still a teenager."

Yinsen's face turned into a horrible grimace as he stepped closer to Tony.

"You poor soul," he whispered, putting his arms around Tony. "Being expected to act older than you are. Not to forget being stuck her. It is bad enough for me, but you, my friend, are for all intents and purposes still a child. You should not have to do this."

And, just for a moment, Tony allowed himself to be comforted, like the kid he was. For a few seconds, he was not in a cave in Afghanistan, he was at home with his family.

* * *

"I have a plan for both of us to escape," Tony stated confidently as he laid out the plans on the very next day. "Watch."

"...I see," Yinsen commented. He made sure that his body blocked the view on the overlaying transparencies. The human was reasonably certain that nothing could be seen either way, but making sure could not hurt them. "So, we will be building one for you?"

"No," Tony shook his head. "We're building one for you. If I get hit while we escape, we can repair this body or, in the absolute worst case, we destroy it completely and you take a copy of my programming with you. I am not leaving you behind." The android crossed his arms and glared at Yinsen.

The human gave him a weak smile. "Alright." It was more of a whisper than anything, but it was more than enough of a confirmation for Tony.

"Then let's get started."

* * *

It took them quite a while, but eventually, they got the suit finished.

Tony had been here three months and he hadn't dared to ask how long the human had been imprisoned here.

"Looking forward to returning to your family?" the android questioned as he assembled the suit.

"They died," Yinsen confessed.

Just for a second, Tony froze, before he gave his very best to work twice as fast as before.

"You can share mine. We're a jolly bunch."

Yinsen angled his head slightly. "I didn't know you had a family."

"Well, I do," Tony replied as he put the front plate in its proper place. "There's Happy, Pepper, and Rhodey. They started out as friends, but they're my siblings in all but blood. Then there's Aunt Peggy. You shouldn't anger her, she as an entire spy network at her disposal. And then there are my kids. DUM-E, U, Butterfingers, and JARVIS. The first three are robots and the latter's an AI largely based on my own code. You'll fit right in with our madness."

* * *

Their escape was as successful as they could have hoped for.

Both of them survived and Tony's body only had three bullet holes and one or two burns. Yinsen was almost completely uninjured.

They stumbled away from the caves, into the desert, barely believing it themselves.

"We did it," Yinsen said once they were certain they were not being followed. "We actually did it. I can't believe that we actually left these caves."

"Yes, we did," Tony confirmed.

They smiled at each other for a few seconds, because neither of them wanted to ruin the moment.

"Now we just need to find something other than sand," Tony added eventually. They would have to face the truth sooner or later, after all. "Because otherwise this was all for naught."

"We have the hardest part behind us," Yinsen argued. "We've gotten this far, so surely we will be able to do the rest."

And they were indeed picked up by Rhodey not much later with a helicopter. The man—bless him—had never stopped looking for Tony.

"Rhodey, Yinsen, Yinsen, Rhodey," he introduced them. "Now, please tell me you have a way to reach the ki- Happy and Pepper," he corrected himself once he realized the presence of the other soldiers. "I'm sure they're worried out of their minds."

"Miller, please give Mr. Stark a phone. I know that there are at least three lying around in this thing somewhere."

* * *

Once back home, Tony began to truly study himself. He started to figure out how his body worked and what could be improved.

Because a lot of the tech was outdated and Tony couldn't stand that. He designed an entirely new body. It was more efficient, and resistant. It was stronger and there were twelve weapons hidden inside it.

After he was done with that and successfully transferred his consciousness over to the newer version, he moved on to designing more suits. Better ones than the one he had built in Afghanistan.

And these were for himself, because now that he had seen what his weapons were truly

doing, he could not possibly allow it to continue.

* * *

Just like Tony had predicted, Yinsen fit right into their weird family.

The bots absolutely adored him as soon as they met him.

DUM-E gave a series of happy beeps that Tony was forced to translate for the human.

"He wants to thank you for saving my life—on behalf of the others, too—and he called you his, well, his grandfather." It was very awkward and Tony had absolutely no idea how the human would react.

But Yinsen smiled, knelt down and patted DUM-E on his arm.

"Your father saved my life just as much. I would be happy to be a part of your family."

"And we would like to welcome you into it," JARVIS replied, a smile audible in his voice.

Happy, Pepper, and Rhodey all separately vetted and questioned the man to make sure that he had no intention whatsoever to harm any of them, but once he had passed all of their tests, they also gladly accepted him into their family.

"The more, the merrier," Rhodey laughed.

* * *

Tony had never quite trusted Stane. There had always been a sense of distrust between them that the human had remained oblivious of.

It had been caused by the fact that Stane had been friends with Howard.

After years and years of thinking it was simply paranoia, it was kind of nice to finally have some proof.

That did not mean that he didn't still feel betrayed and all other sorts of terrible things—because yes, he did have emotions, thank you very much—if anything, it made it worse.

With the help of his family and SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson—he knew of it and he knew that they had made that acronym on purpose, so why couldn't Agent Agent use it?—he eventually managed to destroy Stane.

The sense of satisfaction was nevertheless accompanied by a number of negative emotions.

* * *

 _The Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart_ Pepper had engraved on the first reactor, knowing full well that he had not one in the biological sense.

Somehow, that only made it more touching.

And in the end, nostalgia had somehow, in a sense, saved his life. Or maybe not, because his code was now stored the same way J's was. He was everywhere, this body was simply a focus.

Peggy's 'Please Don't Get Kidnapped Ever Again' present was slightly different.

She showed up to his door one morning and pushed a small suitcase in his hands before he had even finished greeting her.

Her appearance alone was enough to trick anyone off that _something_ was horribly wrong. A lot of hairs were out of place which never happened with Aunt Peggy. Never ever.

"Listen, Tony. We don't have a lot of time. I discovered something horrible and you're the one I trust most to do something against it. I can't be certain about the allegiance of any agent in SHIELD, but I know that you can't possibly be one of them. Take care, Tony."

She hugged him tight and then left as suddenly as she had come.

"What was that;" Yinsen questioned, just now arriving at the door, clad in an apron and a wooden spoon still in his hand.

Tony shook his head. "I have no idea."

He raised the suitcase and opened it ever so slightly. It contained several thick files and a number flash drives.

"But I intend to find out."

* * *

Not even a week later Tony got a message that his Aunt apparently suffered from dementia.

She had been fine when they had met, but when he visited her in the home she was placed in—by whom?—Aunt Peggy did not even recognize him.

Something was indeed terribly wrong here and discovering—and, more importantly, deciphering—the contents of the suitcase was now his top priority, pushing the task of tracking down and destroying his weapons on the second place.

He could do both at the same time, but he also planned in some time devoted purely to the suitcase.

* * *

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


End file.
